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Show ( ( Pioneer :e:ersonal Interview Utah Historic Records Survey Federal Writers' Projects WPA Mabel Jarvis, St.George, Utah. When Manomas Gibson was fifteen years of age s·he went to work in the home of Levi Stewart who ha.d three families for whom she. did iilie general housework, most of the cooking, and all of the washing. For this drudgery she received the tremendoua wage of ,;1.50 per week, mostly in "store-paytt and with this purchased her :first elaborate dress, - a dainty piect of calico print-- at 2.5 cents per yard, and made it up odd minutes and after work. And it took some yards of' material t hose days for a dress. She remained a.t Stewartll~ until her mother's illness made i t necessary t'or her to returh home. Later she worked at the Beehive Hous:-e for Zina D. Young. Due to her mother being ill most o:f the time after she was of school age, this pioneer girl had littla opportunity for an education. She did attend a few weeks of school in Big Cottonwood. r.Che log school building-a one-room place, with rough tables a ncl rougher fienches, was a half mile from the Gibson home, but the·y walked to school unless the weather was too stormy. She studied from the Elementary Spel ler, and completed the Third Reader before compelled to discontinue school, though. she does not remember the name of the Author. In their home they had the Holy :Bible, the Book ot: I Mormon and others of the Church works as they were published. Har parents were both fairly good readers: and the.y conformed to Church programs. in the family reading of these volumes. This practice she regards as very helpful. in the education of children, where the parents take a: kindly interest. When the Deseret News began publication, that was a great innovation, and everyone scrimped and saved to have that in the home. "'Perhaps those newspaper stories would not appeal to the young folks of to-day'\ aai d thi a good l ady, "but they were just what we were starved for in those days and we enjoyed them.1• · After coming to I>ixie ttAunt Nome» was generally out at the <Satt le C Ranches and did not often s ee the papers published locally, but remembers of the printing of ttlfhe Cactus.", by S.G.R.Sangiovanni, "'The Star" by Carpenter -6- |
